PM Modi does Gandhigiri, offers glass of water to AAP’s Bhagwant Mann

New Delhi: Taking a cue from the Gandhigiri of the BJP lawmakers who offered roses to the agitating Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday offered a glass of water to AAP member Bhagwant Mann, who was protesting in the Lower House of the Parliament against the CBI raids at Delhi secretariat.

AAP MP Mann while shouting slogans in the well of the House felt uneasy and looked for water on the table of Lok Sabha secretariat officials who sit in the Well.

Coming to his aid, a smiling PM Modi offered him the glass of water kept on his table which the AAP member readily drank. The two smiled as Mann kept the glass back on the table. Several BJP members appreciated the PM’s gesture by thumping the desks.

But that did not stop Mann from raising anti-government slogans.

On Tuesday, in a bid to make up with protesting Congress lawmakers, some BJP MPs offered roses to them in the Lok Sabha. This happened while the former were inside the well of the house raising slogans over alleged atrocities against Dalits.

Congress MPs stormed into the well raising slogans against the Prime Minister and the SAD-BJP government in Punjab over the alleged chopping off of limbs of two Dalit youths at a farmhouse in Abohar, even though Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected notices for adjournment of the Question Hour including one on the Punjab Dalit issue.

While they were shouting slogans like ‘PM sharam karo’ (PM shame, shame) and ‘dismiss Punjab government’, six BJP lawmakers offered them roses.

Apparently embarrassed by their move, some senior BJP leaders pulled their MPs out of the well, but not before the latter had strewn a few roses on the table of the Lok Sabha secretariat officials inside the well.

When the House proceedings resumed, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge insisted on a debate on the Dalit issue.

Taking a dig at protesting Congress MPs, the Speaker said, “There is a question on farmers, but they (Congress members) have nothing to do with the farmers.”

When the Congress MPs continued raising slogans, Mahajan said in an angry vein, “In reality, you don’t want to raise Dalit issue. You just want to shout. This is not fair.”

Parliament of India is a source of interest for many people because of various reasons. Wikimedia Commons

In April, the opposition may lose its edge over BJP in Rajya Sabha

NDA led by Modi has faced many embarrassments in Rajya Sabha in past few years

This is expected to change soon

Come April, the opposition in the Rajya Sabha may lose its edge in the numbers game and the power to stall any government bill, as the ruling BJP-led NDA coalition is set to catch up with its rivals, though a clear majority will elude them for a while more.

BJP to soon get more comfortable in Rajya Sabha. Wikimedia Commons

As 58 MPs, including three Nominated and one Independent, are set to retire in April, the Rajya Sabha math is going to change. It is set to favour the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and the trend may continue in the elections to the Upper House later too with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having solid majorities in a number of state assemblies, especially the ones it won after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

With this, while the Congress-led opposition’s numbers will come down to around 115 from the present 123, the numbers of the BJP, its allies and sympathisers together would climb to around 109 from the present 100-odd members.

And the gap, once wide enough to let the opposition invariably have its say, will keep narrowing further in the coming months.

Of the 55 retiring members (excluding those Nominated), 30 belong to the opposition camp while 24 belong to the BJP and allies. Of them, a large number of NDA candidates are set to return while the opposition will lose a chunk of its members.

As things stand now, the Congress-led opposition has 123 MPs (including 54 of the Congress) in a house of 233 elected members (apart from 12 Nominated), while the NDA has 83 members (including 58 of BJP) plus four Independents who support the BJP (these include MPs Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Subhash Chandra, Sanjay Dattatraya Kakade and Amar Singh).

Rajya Sabha or the Upper House can often be a game changer while passing of the bills is in process.

Also, for all practical purposes, the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), that has 13 members in the Rajya Sabha, is also with the NDA. This means the NDA’s effective strength in the upper house of Parliament is 100.

The gap was wider till just a few months ago. This meant that during any battle between the government and the opposition in the Upper House over bills and major issues, it was the opposition that invariably had its way. The recent example was the triple talaq legislation that the opposition stalled in the upper house, demanding that it be referred to a Select Committee.

For over less than four years, the Narendra Modi government had faced quite a few embarrassments in the Rajya Sabha thanks to the majority of the opposition, forcing it often to take the money bill route to avoid a clash in the house. Under the Constitution, a money bill needs to be passed only in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha cannot stall it.

Of the 100 BJP-allies MPs, 24 are retiring. Which means, the government will be left with 76 MPs (including AIADMK). But at least 30 from the NDA are set to get re-elected. So the number will rise to 106. Add three members that the government would nominate to the upper house and the final NDA tally will roughly be 109 MPs.

Further, there are fence-sitters such as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the YSR Congress, which are not virulently against the BJP and would not oppose the government unless for very compelling reasons.

Now, for the Congress and the rest of the opposition, they are set to lose 30 MPs (including one Independent, A.V. Swamy) through retirement and would be left with around 93 members. The Opposition may win roughly 22 seats, which means that its final tally after April is likely to be around 115 members.

Government can now expect some smooth sailing in the Rajya Sabha, coming this April.

The gap has clearly narrowed and the government may not be at the mercy of the opposition during crucial votes and can have its way in the Rajya Sabha if it musters its numbers by deftly wooing “floater” MPs.

The three newly-elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members may remain equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress, though the party is friendly with some of the major opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress.

In an interesting development recently, the AAP actively participated in the opposition’s walkout and the day-long boycott of the Rajya Sabha over long intra-day adjournments of the Upper House by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

The AAP, which was not welcome at any opposition meetings earlier, particularly those held in Parliament House, was invited to speak at a joint opposition media interaction on the day. But nobody can be sure as to how long this bonding would last.

Partywise tally of those retiring in April-May from the opposition’s side include 13 from the Congress, six from the Samajwadi Party, three of the Trinamool Congress, two each of the Nationalist Congress Party and Biju Janata Dal and one each of the CPI-M, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

NDA has to face many embarrassments in past few years in Rajya Sabha. Wikimedia Commons

From the ruling side, 17 MPs of the BJP, three of the Janata Dal United, one of the Shiv Sena and two of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are retiring.